Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a suturing and knotting device for laparoscopic surgery, and more particularly to a device integrating the suturing and knotting processes into one single procedure.
Description of the Related Art
It is known that laparoscopic surgery has become a mainstream of minimally invasive surgery. However, in the laparoscopic surgery, a surgeon still needs to use a laparoscope to suture and knot human tissue in the abdominal cavity. The suturing and knotting processes are publicly accepted as the most difficult and challenging and high-technical parts of such surgery. The advanced instruments often used in minimally invasive surgery, such as laser, high-frequency electro-cautery and ultrasonic harmonic scalpel can only provide cutting and stanching effect, while being useless in the suturing and knotting processes needed in organ or tissue reconstruction. The current laparoscopic surgery still relies on the conventional suturing technique. After the suturing process, it is necessary to tie surgical knot or multiple flat knots outside or inside the abdominal cavity to form a reliable reconstruction surgical structure. However, the space in the abdominal cavity for the suturing and knotting processes is quite narrow. Moreover, the surgeon can only perform the operation via a screen without three-dimensional perception. This further increases the difficult in performing suturing and knotting processes in the abdominal cavity. Therefore, the conventional knot tied in the abdominal cavity can hardly achieve the symmetry required by the flat knot. As a result, the ratio of the failed knotting process is high and the strength of the knot is insufficient.
The suturing and knotting processes are two independent stages in the surgery process. In the existent technique, these two surgical stages have never been integrated. It is a very uneasy technique to tie a knot in the abdominal cavity. This daunts many surgeons. We can even say that suture knotting is the most difficult part in laparoscopic surgery.
Although many aid devices have been developed to lower the difficult in performing laparoscopic surgery, it is uneasy to operate these devices and the functions of these devices are limited and the prices for these devices are high. Therefore, these devices are not popularized. Currently, most of the surgeons still employ the conventional method to knot in the abdominal cavity, which is quite difficult. The surgeons must repeatedly practice the knotting technique to enhance the skillfulness. It is therefore tried by the applicant to provide a suturing and knotting integrated device for laparoscopic surgery to solve the above problems existing in the conventional device.